It is the Small Things (Part 2)

For Will's second birthday he received tools as a gift. As I opened the tools and was taking them out I was telling the kids the names of each tool. A few moments later while they were playing with them Alaina says, "Look Mommy! I am wrenching like a little girl!"

Will's party theme was Thomas the train and each child took home a goody bag with a train whistle, train lollipop, and some Thomas tattoos. During the party Alaina asked Grammy to put one of the tattoos on her and she did. A couple days later Alaina said, "Mommy I want my too-too off" pointing at the Thomas tattoo on her arm.

After going to church with her cousin, Kiley, I asked Alaina what she learned about Jesus. She quickly responded, "They were out of doughnuts!"

Sitting at lunch the other day, Will looks up at Aaron and says, "Smell it Daddy? Smell it Daddy?" Aaron looked at me and asked, "What is he saying?" I clearly stated that Will was saying, "Smell it Daddy?" So Aaron looked at Will and said, "Smell what?" Will quickly replied, "My butt!"

One night while sitting at a restaurant Will proudly announces, "My butt tooted, my butt tooted!"

While in the car, I was listening to my Superchicks CD and as the music changed to a different tune Alaina asked, "What kind of music is this mom?" I said, "This part is called rap music." She said, "Oh, wrapping paper music."

Watching Backyardigans one evening before bed the crew was on a secret mission and they were trying to miss all the boobie traps. Alaina quickly looked at me with a very questioning look and said, "Boobie trap, mommy?" Then she kinda smiled and repeated it to herself a couple of times.

Lately, Alaina has been very inquisitive. She has been asking some pretty tough questions too. The other day she asked, "Mommy how is the baby going to get out of your tummy?" Then tonight before bed she began to ask about Jesus on the cross. So after a lengthy conversation about the life of Christ and spending eternity in Heaven she thoughtfully asked, "How will we get to Heaven? Do we walk there?" Before I could say no or explain further she said, "If it is a long trip can we watch a movie?"

So after homeschooling Alaina today, we laid down to nap and I said to her, "I am so thankful for you! I love you very much!" She replied, "I love you too. You are the best teacher at my school!" Every mom should be so lucky to hear such words, she is a sweet girl! I must admit, I am the best teacher at her school. Considering.... I am the only teacher at her school!

Saving the Best for Last

This is probably going to be a short post, but I had to write about it. Over the last few years living with my daughter I have noticed many of her habits and preferences. She like her father is very particular. She like things to be just so. From the little things, like which spoon she uses to eat with to the big jobs like cleaning her room. My most recent discovery, although I had noticed it before, now I can put it into to words. My Alaina likes saving the best for last!

She eats cranberry cereal for breakfast, but before eating it she picks out the cranberries and saves them to eat last. For lunch when eating spaghetti and meatballs, yep you guessed it, she pulls out the meatballs and saves them for last. Dinner time, same thing, whatever she likes most out of the meal she saves for last to eat. On the occasion that we have dessert she pulls the chocolate chips out of the cookies and of course, eats them last.

So as I am explaining this process to my husband he smiles and says, "Yeah, I do that too." He proceeds to tell me that even that very day when we brought and had lunch with him at work he had saved his last bite of burger to eat once everything else was finished. So at least now I know where she gets it, right?

The State Fair

Going to the fair is a very dear memory for me from my childhood. It was something we enjoyed doing every year sometimes hitting up more than one by traveling to nearby counties. This tradition had not been carried on into my marriage. . We went last year with the kids and had an ok time. My husband who did not take in the fair as a child said, "I don't really see the big deal." But he was a trooper and took us anyway. So as the fair approached this year I was hoping we would set this tradition in stone and go for the second year in a row. To help my cause my niece even provided us with free admission tickets and coupons for ride tickets. YAY! It looked like everything was falling into place!

Unexpectedly, we ended up keeping my niece and nephew for a few days this week so we decided to take all four kids to the fair. Some might call this a crazy decision taking a 4, 3, 2, and 1 year old to the fair, but at the conclusion of the night I was calling it one of the best nights of my life.

The fair was at a new location this year and it was wonderful! So nicely laid out and clean with lots of benches to sit on and well landscaped. I don't know what made this night so special. Whether it was the fact that it was a beautiful crisp fall night, one of the first of the season. Maybe it was just the fact that it brought back a lot of great childhood memories with my family when my dad was living and so enjoyed taking us to the fair every year. But if I had to contribute it to just one thing I think it would have to be seeing the fair through my daughter's eyes.

Leading up to going to the fair she and her cousin Kiley spent the day asking me questions like is there going to be a ferris wheel, cotton candy, and popcorn. They were so excited to go that as we pulled up there were shrills of delight coming from the back of the van. Then once we were walking towards the event the girls were bouncing not walking down the path.

As the kids started riding rides we realized that the thought of riding them seem more exciting then actually doing it. Except for my niece, Kiley, she was ready to ride everything even the ferris wheel. As we walked around to each ride she began to coach, encourage, and talk Alaina into riding the rides. It was just enough of a push to give her the courage to ride even the ones she thought would be too scary. I watched Alaina's face on each one of these rides, it started out with a worried grin but by the end of each ride she would run out of the exit to give me a huge hug. She looked so grown up and brave and she felt it! It was so sweet and so special to watch her confidence grow through out the night (with help from Kiley). It was getting late and Kiley was determined to still ride the ferris wheel. As Alaina, Aaron, and Kiley went round and round up so very high I thought what a good night, not knowing it was going to get better.

So we headed out of the fair but needed to make good on a promise of "dessert" to the girls. They wanted ice cream cones. We sat on a bench while they ate their ice cream cones, and I had a funnel cake with cherries, and Aaron enjoyed his usual gyros. The girls finished quickly and started to dance to the music that was playing in the background. Which was so cute I had to get up to take several videos of them. We finished our snacks and walked towards the exit realizing we still needed to get cotton candy so we bought some and sat on yet another bench this time it was right near the live music. Once the 6 of us consumed the cotton candy or at least most of it, all the kids got up and started dancing wildly to the music. As I watched and videoed them dancing, I realized this was one of the best nights of my life!